Ken Paxton CAUGHT on HOT MIC Trash-Talking Trump

Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov

The episode examines the political fallout from leaked audio of Ken Paxton expressing concerns about Trump's impact on Texas Republican numb

Key takeaways

• Leaked audio from a fundraiser reveals Ken Paxton believes Trump's influence may be hurting GOP numbers in Texas.
• A Wall Street Journal poll shows Democrats leading by 8 points on the generic ballot due to high support for policies like capping medical bills and prescription drugs.

Main topics

• Ken Paxton and Texas Senate race
• Democratic polling and policy popularity

Notable quotes

If super intelligence had a definition, it would be this episode.

Conclusion

The hosts provide a critical analysis of how political messaging, tech

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:01) I'm Ina Garten, and each week on Happy Hour, I invite old and new friends for a drink and a fun conversation at my kitchen table in New York City. On this week's episode, I'm joined by Andy Baraghani. We talk all about how he started his career as a teenager at Chez Panisse to becoming an internet heartthrob from his cooking videos to opening his first restaurant in New York City this fall. New episodes of Happy Hour are available every Wednesday. You can watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Cheers. Speaker 8 (0:40) Hogging seats on a crowded train, not saying excuse me, watching videos on your phone with no headphones in. Sometimes it feels like we don't know how to act anymore. What we have been seeing increasingly is people breaking rules. Why should I play by the rules if nobody else is going to do that for me? This week on Explain It To Me, how to mind your manners. New episodes Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 7 (1:08) We all know the Beach Boys, but to really understand them, you have to get to know the genius behind their songs, Brian Wilson. I'm Will Anderson, and this week on the Monday Music Club podcast, we dive into the history behind two of his masterpieces, the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds and their song Good Vibrations. I was joined by Brian's biographer, David Leaf, and we went through what drove Brian, what it was like in the studio during those sessions, and why the pressure of following them up made Brian have to take a step back from music. You can listen to the episode everywhere you get your podcasts by searching for Monday Music Club. Speaker 4 (1:47) Hey, welcome back to another episode of The Raging Perspective featuring me and my good friend, Jessica Tarloff. If you haven't subscribed yet, hit that subscribe button. Speaker 2 (1:57) You're all about the business, man. Yeah, subscribe everywhere. YouTube, Substack. Are there other options? Oh, it'll be on the Raging Modernist pod later. Anyway, we love you guys. This is, I don't know if this is true for you, but like a big highlight of my week every week. It's a lot of fun. Speaker 4 (2:16) Yeah, it's so much fun. So I love it. Speaker 2 (2:18) You know, sometimes you get the rundown and you're like, man, this is kind of boring. This show is a banger. There is really good stuff in here. I Speaker 4 (2:26) mean, listen, if super intelligence had a definition, it would be this episode. Speaker 2 (2:31) There we go. And if our president could spell United States properly, which we will also get to. But I want to start with the leaked audio heard across the world slash Twitter. Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for Senate in Texas, longtime Trump ally. Remember, Trump dipped into the race late, like a week to go, to endorse Paxton. But he had been holding it over John Cornyn's head, and we knew he was going to go for the guy who was impeached by his own party and cheated on his wife really badly. Though I was kind of bummed that she still came out and endorsed him and was like... If Brian did that to me, no Senate seat for you. Anyway, so New York Times got their hands on a recording from a fundraiser where Paxton talks about his numbers and says everyone's dropped after Trump's recent convention in Dallas. There was a bump. It was a 2.5 point bump for Democrats coming out of their midterms convention. Let's listen to Ken Paxton. Speaker 7 (3:38) All these guys. Speaker 7 (3:42) But do you feel like he's a little bit of a drag? So, to be honest with you, the numbers, in case, when we did that convention, we'll try out our numbers. Everybody can't read that. By now, yeah, not good. I wish there was something to do to turn that on, but obviously that's not good. Speaker 4 (4:03) Bad. Well, with a caveat. Speaker 2 (4:07) Like, good for Tallarico, so good. Speaker 4 (4:10) I actually look at this from multiple point of views. I don't know. This won't hurt, in my opinion, this won't hurt Ken Paxton unless Trump sees it and is upset about it. He's Speaker 2 (4:19) going to see Speaker 4 (4:19) it. Speaker 2 (4:20) So yeah, Speaker 4 (4:20) once Trump sees it. He's Speaker 2 (4:22) not Speaker 4 (4:22) doing Speaker 2 (4:22) anything else. Speaker 4 (4:23) Once Trump sees it, puts out a true social post, or just starts cutting funding, then I think it's going to start hurting Ken Paxton on its own. I'm like, okay, it's just like. It's Ken Paxton saying what everyone else is saying, just like we hear it for the first time. But it is so pretty. I want to know who recorded it. Like, this is like a private donor meeting. I'm just, I'm fascinated. Who's the leak? Speaker 2 (4:44) I mean, there are leaks in the Situation Room, for God's sakes. Like, it's Susie Wiles, Stephen Chung, J.D. Vance. Like, you don't think there's someone sitting in a Ken Paxton donor meeting that's like, I'm just going to record this. It always gets out. He actually sounded the most normal that Ken Paxton has ever sounded to me, which was a bit of a letdown where I was like, oh, maybe there is a human being in there that is somewhat connected to reality. But I think there is a zero percent chance that Trump isn't made aware of this. I think there will be bluster about it. It's really the funding issue because Ken Paxton has. not been able to fundraise well on his own. John Cornyn, historically an enormously productive fundraiser for himself and for the party. You know, big shot across Ken Paxton's bow that last week or the week before, Cornyn did a fundraiser with George W. Bush and they fundraised for every other Republican Senate candidate in the country except Ken Paxton, and they did it in Dallas. Speaker 2 (5:49) I'm wondering, and I don't think it's going to happen, but we have seen some pretty high level defections to supporting Democrats in Texas. You have Karl Rove out there saying, I mean, this Beau French is completely despicable, but he's the one who posted that the shot of the arena had too many people of color in it for his taste. And Ken Paxton could only... you know, muster a mild, like, that's not okay with me, bro, versus Karl Rose. Like, I'm voting for the Democrat. And then he was talking at Tribfest and basically said the Republicans are a bunch of Nazis. And the fact that Nick Fuentes even has any access means, like, you can't really support these guys. I don't think he's going to be putting on a blue T-shirt and going door to door. But do you think there is any shot that John Cornyn says that he's going to vote for Tallarico? Speaker 4 (6:44) No, but I do think he's going to vote for Tallarico. Quietly? Yeah, I think Cornyn will vote. I just, I cannot imagine that Cornyn would come out and say, mm-mm. Vote for James. Speaker 4 (6:58) I mean, if he did that to me, that would solidify a James victory. I mean, yeah. Yeah. But I think if we haven't heard it yet, maybe that's the October surprise that the Tallarico team is holding on to. But no, I don't. I can't imagine. So Cornyn's done a good job. If you've seen what he's been doing over the past since losing the primary, he's still a Republican through and through. And he's still very much like on the party line. But he's like towing that line so carefully while also attacking. Paxton subtly and going after some of these Republicans in Texas that I don't think he I think he wants some some position in the party, some some respect to not be Speaker 2 (7:38) remembered as a traitor. You know, after you have like decades long career, I could understand that that might not be appealing. But if you just look at the ads that his team was running during the primary, you. I can feel 99.9 % confident that John Cornyn is not going to be voting for this guy. And I'm always curious, like, what the life is like for the John Cornyn staffer that's now part of the Tallarico campaign. And if he would, I don't know if he wants to come on the pod, tell us that there are a lot more like him. Yeah, if you're listening, I guess we could just, like, reach out to the Tallarico campaign and ask. I'm sure that would not happen. But if there are more... like him. And I would guess that there are. What do you make of, before we move, I want to do a little more election bat signal stuff. I saw Jim Justice, the West Virginia senator, posting about how out of control ICE is. This follows Roger Marshall in Kansas doing the same thing. And this probably just appealed to my data nerd heart. But in the new Wall Street Journal poll, which has Democrats up eight on the generic ballot. I saw that they did a survey within the survey of the top 10 policies with